Join us for Christmas Eve Worship
and Simple Meal

Before COVID, we held an in-person candlelight Meeting for Worship on Christmas Eve, followed by a simple meal of tamales, beans, and whatever desserts people could bring.

Last year we had to cancel this long-standing tradition.

COVID has faded and we have improved our ventilation system. We will restart our tradition!

NEW SCHEDULE: Friday, December 24th

• 5:00-6:00 pm: set up the candles and food PLUS snacks, fellowship, and conversation. This gives us social time with Friends who can’t stay for the simple meal.
• 6:00-7:00 pm: Candlelight Meeting for Worship. In-person and masked; vaccinations highly recommended. (There is not enough light to offer a Zoom option.)
• 7:00 on: Simple meal, fellowship, and conversation. We can be COVID-aware without being paranoid. Please stay home if you have symptoms.

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2nd Thursday Simple Meal & 
Workshop on “Individual Spiritual Discernment”

6:00-8:30pm at the Meetinghouse;
The Workshop portion will also be on Zoom

This month, our 2nd Thursday hatchback/porch/worship event will be a little different. As we have done before, we will each bring our own food and eat together on the porch if weather permits or in the community room starting at 6 p.m.

At 7-8:30 p.m., our guest, Jerry Knutson will offer a workshop based on his Pendle Hill Pamphlet #443 “Individual Spiritual Discernment”.

This workshop will focus on secular decision making, practicing a method of discernment, testing, and implementing the discernment, and practicing spiritual disciplines. Participants are requested to bring a question, issue, situation that they would like to discern.

You do not need to have read the pamphlet in advance, but Jerry will have copies available if Friends want them.

If you cannot attend in person,
you are welcome to join the workshop at 7:00 by ZOOM:

To join by computer: Click HERE

Zoom ID #976 0522 6497
passcode: 194077
Phone: +1 346 248 7799, then enter ID#

 

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Janet Southwood Memorial Meeting

Saturday, December 4, 11:00am

You are invited to celebrate the life of Janet Southwood, a beloved member of our Meeting for over 20 years.  She and Ken moved to St Paul in 2018 to be near their daughter and family.  Janet will be remembered for her gentle hospitality and welcome to visitors.  A Hospitality Fund in her name has been established by Meeting open for donations.

You can join the Memorial in person at the Friends Meeting of San Antonio, or by zoom, see link below.  Following the worship, there will be a simple lunch of soup, sandwiches and fruit.  Would Friends in person please bring a dessert item.  For more information, please contact jmhaynes@earthlink.net

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Porch Party: Thursday, Nov 11^th
(6:00-7:30)

Join us for our 2nd-Thursday “Porch Party” on the Meetinghouse porch.  We aren’t quite ready to resume our potlucks yet, but we can talk together, eat (bring your own food, utensils, etc), and hold Meeting for Worship in the Meeting Room.

• 6-6:30 Greet/talk
• 6:30-7:00 Eat
• 7:00-7:30 Meeting for Worship

Please bring/wear masks and respect each other’s distancing needs.

This is a safe, fun way to build community!

(Drawing by Sandra Strait: https://bit.ly/3BvohDL)

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Cielo Grande Quarterly Meeting
May 29th,9am – noon

by ZOOM

(click HERE or see connection below)

Maybe you knew, or maybe you didn’t: Quakers organize ourselves into Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meetings, They are named for how often they meet for business and for conviviality. Each of these covers more territory and unites more Friends. FMSA is part of Cielo Grande Quarterly, which also includes Austin, Dallas, Coastal Bend, Hill Country, and Rio Grande.

This year, our Quarter is responsible for planning the SCYM Program.

We are gathering:

• To share ideas about the theme of the next South Central Yearly Meeting (in April 2022)
• To be present together and overcome our separation
• To see where Love will take us

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The Quaker May Fair is Happening!!

Saturday May 22nd at the Meetinghouse

See photos from the May 22nd Fair

See photos from our garden made the same day

This year, the Quaker May Fair will be a neighborhood yard sale in the parking lot. Meeting will feature books and baked goods [donated, not home baked this year].

We will follow CDC guidelines re masks, distancing and sanitizers. F/friends please wear FMSA tee-shirts & name tags, bring shopping bags, invite family, friends, and neighbors.

The timetable is:
     • 7:30: set up tables & tents;
     • 8:00: Friends & neighbors set up;
     • 9:00-1:00: sell, then take everything down.

And tell Gretchen how you would like to be involved [jmhaynes@earthlink.net]. There’s plenty of work to go around in this community building event, the postponed 6th Annual Quaker Fair,

See photos from our last Community Yard Sale

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Silent Retreat at the
Quaker Meeting House

May 8, 2021

9:30 am – 3:30 pm

Rain or Shine

Simone Weil, a spiritual philosopher, mystic, and radical seeker of truth in the 20th century wrote: “Waiting patiently in hope and expectation is the foundation of the Spiritual life.”

For Weil, waiting patiently in humility was the mystical way to the heart of God. Indeed, waiting in silence upon God is primary to the Quaker Faith. Still, waiting in silence together takes practice until it becomes a joyous sharing.

You are invited to a more intense experience of silence: a Silent Retreat at the Meetinghouse on Saturday May 8th, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A DETAILED INTRODUCTION

SCHEDULE

• 9:30-10:30 – We will begin with twenty minutes of silence, then as we feel led, we will worship share on what strengths or weaknesses we discovered within during the pandemic. What practices/disciplines, spiritual or otherwise, assisted your journey? What nourishes you in troubled times? Close with silence.
• 10:30-12:00 – We will share extended individual Silent Worship to be taken anywhere on the grounds, i.e., in the meeting room, the common area, the library, under the arbor, on a bench, or beside a tree.
• 12:00-1:15 – Silent Lunch and Active Silence (READ DEFINITION HERE)
• 1:15-2:45 – We will share extended individual Silent Worship to be taken anywhere on the grounds. (See above 10:30-12:00)
• 2:45-3:30+ – We will end with an opportunity to worship share about what rose up from our experience. What shifts in awareness or other movements within came out of a day of silence? Close with silence.

You may come for the full time, or the morning (9:30-noon),
or the afternoon (noon-3:30)

Kindly RSVP for what suits you best to jonitebo@aol.com or davidbristol128@gmail.com

• Masks Required, Distance Respected.
• Participants may spend the entire retreat outside if they wish.
• Please bring your own sack lunch (and chair if you care to).
• Unfortunately we cannot provide child care.

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Threshing Meeting:

To identify the issues and concerns that we must address before we hold Meetings for Worship inside our Meetinghouse

11:30am-1:00pm on April 18th (after Meeting for Worship)

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and it is not yet safe to hold our Meetings for Worship and other activities indoors. We can, however, now foresee the pandemic’s end. Still, we have several decisions to make before we resume indoor Meetings for Worship, forums, and so on. These include at least the following:

• What modifications, if any, do we need to make to our air circulation system to improve airflow and prevent infections?
• What seating adjustments to we need to make to maintain safe distancing?
• Do we want to place any limits on how many people may attend indoor meetings?
• What should we require of people (masks?, vaccinations?, ????) before they attend?
• How will we include Friends who are unable to attend in person, either for reasons of health or of distance?
• If we use technology, who will make sure it runs effectively?
• When and how can we resume offering childcare and our children’s program?

We expect that other questions will arise. This threshing meeting is designed to identify the issues and see if/where we have potential differences. It is not designed to solve these differences, nor is it designed to come to firm decisions.

About Threshing Meetings/Sessions
From the Website of Madison, Wisconsin, Friends Meeting

A threshing session provides an opportunity, guided by the Spirit, to ask questions, as well as to state a position or express a point of view regarding [a major issue facing the Meeting]. It is an opportunity to explore all our options deeply and thoughtfully. It is a process through which Friends are invited to speak plainly and truthfully about their questions and concerns. Our gathered community will strive together to respond to the questions and concerns with love and thoughtful discourse stemming from the quiet of the Light to bring us round to a clearer understanding of our options. No decisions will be made at the threshing session(s). The threshing session(s) will help prepare us for decision-making when the Meeting is ready for that phase.

Conducting threshing sessions does not preclude cycling back to answer new questions. Moving to the threshing phase is a continuation of the process of knowledge development. It is one more step in a process through which we are guided by the Light and our love for each other to greater understanding and the right outcomes for our Meeting.

A threshing meeting or session is usually moderated or facilitated by an experienced Friend, who is asked in advance to take on this role. The facilitator/moderator is responsible for making sure that everyone present has a chance to speak and air their views. Care should be taken to ensure that Friends of differing opinions can and do attend the threshing meeting or session. Friends with specific knowledge about the subject under discussion should be asked to present factual or complex material and be available to answer questions. Someone should also be asked to take notes at the meeting for future reference.

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Friends Hatchback Party
Thursday, April 8th 6-7:30pm

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Our 2021 South Central Yearly Meeting is fast upon us! We will again meet virtually this year,
with all sessions being held via Zoom. 

The schedule includes the usual activities of worship, business meetings, worship sharing, workshops, keynote speech and Fireside Chat, panel discussion, Peace & Justice forum, and yes, even a virtual variety show!

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER